Ch. 3 Flashcards
Arousal Theory
Holds that we can best understand behavior by understanding how the organism becomes activated
Arousal can be viewed on a continuum of behavioral activation
Low arousal = coma, sleep
High arousal = stress
Sympatho-Adrenomedullary System
SAM Axis
Increased Adrenaline
- Neurotransmitters
- faster
Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal Glands (HPA Axis)
Involuntary.
- slower - cortisol
- Hormones
when threat detected..
Hypo, pituitary, adrenal, cortisol
Fight or Flight response
- You detect a stressor (either in your environment or maybe even in your own thoughts)
- Distress signal sent to your hypothalamus (some say threat is sent by amygdala, prefrontal cortex, or hippocampus)
- Hypothalamus sends out signal to rest of body that all is not well
- Activates the sympathetic nervous system (part of the autonomic/involuntary nervous system; SAM axis – sympathetic-adrenal-medullary system) - FAST
Activates the endocrine system (HPA axis – hypothalamus, pituitary gland, adrenal glands) - SLOWER - Epinephrine & norepinephrine (also known as adrenaline/noradrenaline) and cortisol are released into the blood stream and mobilize the body for action
Epinephrine & norepinephrine more fast acting; cortisol more for the long haul
General Adaptive Syndrome and its phases (Hans Selye)
The body’s resistance to stress can only last so long before exhaustion sets in.
Stress is a nonspecific response of the body to any demand made upon it
“complete freedom from stress is death” (Selye, 1973)
Systemic stress involves a challenge to the integrity of the physical body
The body reacts to invasions (bacteria, virus, heat, cold) in an effort to combat it
The body’s response to psychological stress is virtually identical to its systemic reaction
Phase 1 - Alarm Reaction
Phase 2 - Resistance
Phase 3 - Exhaustion (reserves depleted)
Differences in Arousal/Stress
Life-change and stress research
Level of arousal from any one situation may depend on
Life experiences
More recent life changes predict chance of illness and decreased performance
But also, life experiences with a certain type of stressor could either increase or decrease resistance
Individual differences
Neuroticism
Hardiness (commitment, control, challenge)
How one labels (attributes) the cause of arousal
Two-factor theory of emotion (Schachter & Singer, 1962)
People’s mindset toward stress
Coping with stress—ways to cope, individual differences in coping
- Social Support
May be more important for men
- Explanatory style
Pessimistic vs. Optimistic
- Humor/Positive Emotions
- Knowledge about the stress system
- Keep big picture in mind
- Meditation
- Slow, deep breathing
- ExercisePlacebo Response
The strategies for mitigating stress suggest that there are things that you can consciously do to change your body’s response
Indeed, having certain expectations affects how your body responds
Placebo often considered an inert substance that people nevertheless report makes them feel better
Placebo can also be an expectation or belief, not just a pill
Two-factor theory of emotion (Schachter & Singer, 1962)
you may be feeling a certain way - stress and aroused, if you had a different way to describe it, you might not identify it as stress.
sitting down, coffee, increased heart rate, it’s the coffee not other external things. Re-explain the situation.
- Conducted a study to test how people label their arousal
- Randomly assigned participants to four conditions
Epinephrine informed – told about the side effects of epinephrine
Epinephrine ignorant – not told about how they would feel
Epinephrine misinformed – told wrong symptoms
Control group – injected with a placebo and given no expectation
- Expected epinephrine ignorant and misinformed group to use cues from their environment to label their arousal
- Assigned participants to interact with a euphoric or angry confederate (two separate studies)
Results -
Measured how much the participant “caught the confederate’s mood” (i.e., was happy in euphoric group and angry in the angry group).
Euphoric (ordered from highest to lowest group euphoria)
Epinephrine misinformed, epinephrine ignorant, placebo, epinephrine informed)
Anger (ordered from highest to lowest group anger)
Epinephrine ignorant, placebo, epinephrine informed (no misinformed)
Both results show that participants who had no explanation of why their body felt aroused were more susceptible to environmental cues (the confederate)
Rethinking stress article – Crum, Salovey, & Achor, 2013
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Adenosine and its role in sleep
Neurotransmitter released by brain metabolism during waking
As we think (work our brains), adenosine builds up
The longer you have been awake, the more adenosine you have in your system
And the more sleep pressure that builds
Caffeine blocks the receptor site for adenosine to maintain arousal
Functionality of sleep
Sleep is restorative More REM sleep occurs after days full of worry, stress, or intense learning Organizes our brains Consolidates memories Allows for better visual discrimination Counteracts cortisol
Sleep Deprivation
Inhibits the learning of new things and the retention of tasks learned prior to deprivation
Inhibits decision-making, attention, span, and the speed at which we adapt to new information
Increases anxiety
Related to more car crashes than people with blood alcohol levels of .05
Chronic Sleep Deprivation
- Dysregulates hormones related to appetite
- Increases risk of heart attacks
- Compromises our immune system
- Lowers testosterone
- Premature aging
- Irritability, anxiety, depression, mental exhaustion
- In a clinical sense, the effects of stress and sleep deprivation are indistinguishable
We might be confusing the two
Sleep is the restorative balancer of cortisol
